Impenetrable
by The Perfectly Imperfect One
Summary: Vampires may think they're the strongest, but in a world where everyone assumes, illusions in the hands of a witch can be dangerous things.
1. Chapter 1

People go around, living their lives without really examining them. What is the purpose of this? To comfort ourselves? To assure ourselves that what we're doing now is just fine, we don't need to take chances? Or, is it to remain blissfully ignorant? Too bad as a witch, ignorance isn't bliss. Ignorance can be dangerous. If you don't know what is happening to you as your powers begin to show, you can hurt others and yourself.

That's what happened with me. Well, at least in the beginning. The transition from not-so-normal to less-not-so-normal was painful. I had to stop seeing my friends for a bit, and they were hurt, but it was for the best. It is better to hurt them a little emotionally than to hurt them a lot physically. You see, there were some birth pains that came with my 'gifts'. None of my family seemed to have any idea of this side of our heritage, which led me to believe that I was adopted. But, that wasn't the case considering I'd called the hospital and asked them to look into it. I was my parent's daughter. That just left me with more questions. Still, I managed.

That's the thing about me. I manage. I get by. I continue to go day by day, making sure I like what I see and if not, I change it. I googled absolutely everything I could find on witches, witchcraft, magic, anything I could think of to relate to my weird cases. One still appears in my dreams sometimes...

I shook my head and roused myself from my musings. It was late, around 8:00 and I had promised my parents I wouldn't stay out after dark too long. I just had to gather some herbs from the field for some of my self-taught spells. You pick things up a little everywhere and some of the ladies in herbalist shops had been very helpful as well. Not that they actually believed in what I could do. They probably thought I was a crazy young girl who was in need of some serious medication, but if something works then use it.

"Willow. Oh for goodness' sake there are no willows in this park!" I grumbled to myself. "I need some for tomorrow..." I shrugged my shoulders, breathing in deeply, then out again. Even after four months of acceptance it was still hard to keep my emotions in check sometimes. I didn't want to light a field on fire, or blow up a building so every time I noticed it getting out of hand I fought to remain calm.

I still had not told anyone about my little predicament. It wasn't like I was sort-of sure, or almost sure. I was certain. I had tested everything. I had summoned water up through the pipes to the sink while it was off, I had lifted a shoe up into the air when no one was home without touching it. I do not believe in coincidences, either.

I glanced at my watched and swore. Time had jumped away from me. "8:12 already!" I was spending too much time brooding tonight. I really needed a hobby- a real one. You can't really list 'magic' as a hobby on eHarmony. "I don't need eHarmony." I finished putting some clover leaves into a plastic baggie and shoved it quickly into my bright red backpack. It was time for me to go. I could feel something bad was about to happen.

I turned around and nearly screamed. A man was standing in front of me- only a foot away. He wasn't bad looking either. He was medium height, dark hair, chiselled features, prominent cheekbones. He was nice to look at but I was not getting a nice vibe from him.

"Do you make it a habit of sneaking up on girls at night?" I smiled at him and cocked a hip. No matter what this guy tried I had magic on my side and I was not afraid of getting hurt. Much.

He flashed me his teeth and I saw two that were longer than they should have been. I tried not to let any emotion show on my face. Of course. If there were witches why not vampires. Maybe in ten minutes a werewolf would show up and we could have a tea party. "Only the pretty ones."

I could see that he was waiting for me to swoon or blush or do something girly but I had dropped girly four months ago and I would never be able to go back to partying and boys as if nothing had happened. Or maybe I could. I could blame it on home life or a pregnancy scare or something. Any semblance of normality would have been great. Instead all I said was, "Cool,"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Cool?"

"Cool." I nodded and turned, walking away. _Do not follow me creepy guy or vampire or whatever the heck you are..._ I blinked and he was suddenly in front of me again. "Nice trick." I continued to walk, and I walked right past him. Maybe he would get the message. I blinked again and again he was in front of me, one second not there, and there the next. "You really can't take a hint can you?"

"Careful. You might hurt my feelings." I could see the wheels in his head turning. I was certain I only had a minute or less before he realized that there was something different about me.

"As if you have any." I rolled my eyes, and used that as a ploy to distract him from whatever he was thinking about.

"True. Because I turned mine off." the veins around his eyes got red and his incisors extended, and suddenly he was at my neck.

"As _if__!_" I projected thoughts of fire into the word 'if' and suddenly he was off me, rolling on the ground. I let go of the magic as soon as he was off me, and I sprinted away, keeping a protective barrier around me. Next time if he got close I had a feeling it would be to kill me, and this would be without sucking my blood this time.

I ran into my house and slammed the door shut, driving home the lock and running to lock each and every one of our windows. I would be doing my ritual indoors tonight I suppose. Nobody was home except for my dog which I took as a blessing because I wouldn't have to explain why I was so distraught. I pet my dog and let my tension slowly release itself while I petted her.

"You know, baby girl, if you'd told me four months that my life would have been like this I would have taken enough shots to make me puke, just to forget. Now, all I can do is just keep pretending like I'm okay with this." I sighed. I could do this. THat was part of being the oldest anyways. Protect yourself and your family, until the end.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_"No..." I looked over at the boy writhing on the ground, covered in welts and then touched the tears on my face. He'd hurt my best friend so badly, I'd been so mad... He wasn't moving and everyone was screaming, not knowing what had happened. That was what would save me. The confusion. But I didn't want to be saved. I just wanted to go back to twenty minutes ago before this douche had cheated on my best friend, to before I'd gotten so angry at him and sad for my friend that my emotions had gotten away from me. To before I'd pictured him being covered with sores, one burn for every time he'd ever burned a girl._

_"I can't..." I sobbed into my hands knowing I should do something. I ran over to check his breathing. He was breathing, but faintly. "I need... someone call 911!" I shouted, my voice breaking. I was in agony and my chest was burning with something that I didn't recognize. I had never felt this way before. It was as if sadness was swallowing me whole from the inside out, starting deep in my chest, turning emotion into physicality. _

_"I'm so sorry, so sorry, so sorry..." I sobbed quietly to him. No one was near enough to hear me. They all thought I was helping. I had done this. I was a monster. _

_I turned to the tapping noise behind me, but no one was there._

The tapping continued and I blinked, realizing that it was coming from my window. I breathed deeply and closed my eyes. That recurring nightmare would haunt me to the day I died. Mostly because it had actually happened. The boy was okay but I would never forgive myself for what I'd done. And what's worse, he had thanked me afterwards for trying to save him. How ironic.

The tapping continued and my heart froze. Nothing natural could tap like that. Preparing for the worst I snuck up to my window and pulled back the blinds. My heart plummeted. "You!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Me." the boy from the park smirked at me. "Now why don't you let me in, it's rather cold out here." he said smoothly.

I snorted at him and shook my head, even though my heart was pounding. He had been able to find me. How did I know that he wouldn't hurt my mum when she was coming home from her job late at night or my parents when they left early in the mornings... I mentally shook myself. I would not let that happen, even if I needed to spend days on protection charms. "Good try, vamp. The fact that you're not in here already tells me that you can't get in here without being invited and I'm sure as hell never doing that, and neither is my family."

He pouted, and sat back on his heels, somehow not falling on his back down the slant of my roof. "That's no fun. How am I going to kill you then, Little One?"

My heart stopped for a millisecond when he said 'one'- it had sounded like he was going to say witch. If he knew, then he'd never leave me alone. It would be just like the movies, indentured servitude and all that jazz, in return for him graciously keeping my secret. "You're not, Old One." I smiled sweetly.

"Vampires are much faster than you think. Now, I'm in it for the kill, not the blood. Your neck will be snapped before you can even blink, little human." he was so confidant, and I knew that he was right. Witch or not, I couldn't stop him from snapping my neck. Unless...

An idea sparked in my head and I smiled at him. "Goodnight, little Leech." I drew the curtain closed and didn't even stop to wonder why I could hear him through the window. That didn't matter. What mattered was that he was unsettled now and he would be less brash in killing me. And, I had a plan. A plan that was going to keep me and my family safe and a dangerous vampire at bay.

..

..

..

..

The next day I was out at the forest behind my school looking for the new herbs I needed, as well as some willow bark. I hadn't had time to grab any yesterday. Under the circumstances, my New Moon spell would probably have to be postponed to next month so I could focus on protection talismans and the like. That is why I was out finding more herbs and plants. It was later in the year so I wanted to make sure my supplies were fully stocked and ready for winter. It's always nicer when you don't need to buy the herbs that you can just get outside. I picked some of the plants carefully and others- like pine needles and cedar seeds- I just threw into baggies with less care. Finally, I had a pot as well to plant a cedar sapling in. Cedars have long been associated with protection and healing, so it's always good to have one around.

I began to just mindlessly pick the plants, so used to my routine and the way things normally went. I caught myself starting to daydream about what could happen if I didn't stop the vampire. I could just imagine him coming up to me with that infuriating smirk and saying "what have you got?" and me coming up empty handed. He seemed to be psychotic in an oddly normal way, the only thing that tipped me off was the fact that he was so casual about killing, like it was no big deal that when you kill someone you are taking their light and permanently snuffing it out. You are removing one more piece of brilliance from the world and even if you pretend like it doesn't matter to you, it will stay with you for the rest of your life.

The rest of my day was rather uneventful. I went to class, pretended like I didn't mind being alone. After school it was off to the herbalist shop. I didn't have absolutely everything I needed, and I needed more specific crystals if I was going to pull off what I wanted.

I was surprised to find that Ms. Burnibie wasn't in today. Instead, it was a new girl. She was extremely tall and looked about mid twenties. Her hair was bright red and pulled up into a messy bun with a paisley scarf winding in it. Her glasses were askew and had little embellishment, just black with a little with on it. She had a flowing shirt and some ripped jeans on and was rummaging around on one of the side shelves before she saw me enter.

"Is Ms. Burnibie okay? I've never seen her gone before." I asked and my brow furrowed subconsciously.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's getting on in the years so she hired me to help out. Is there anything specific you're looking for?" she smiled and pushed her glasses farther up her nose, oblivious to an enormous smudge on the surface. That made me wince. I hated things to be out of order, not including my bedroom. My bedroom was my 'i don't care' zone.

"Yes, I've got a whole list for you." I handed it over and looked at the shelves. It did look better than it had before in here. The girl was definitely doing a good job of organizing. I could let the glasses smudge slide for the improvement in organization. I looked at her name tag and saw the name Reena. How oddly fitting. The woman wasn't odd per se but there was certainly an otherworldly feel to her. Then it hit me. "You're a witch."

"I beg your pardon?" she dropped a vial of some mysterious clear liquid and swore. She turned and grabbed a towel to wipe it up.

I rolled my eyes, even though she couldn't see me. Another awful habit of mine. "You cast spells, you're in tune with nature. You know, a witch." I supplied helpfully.

She turned with her eyes wide and then they went back to normal after a fraction of a second. She continued to bustle around the store grabbing the ingredients that I needed. "That's absurd, witches don't exist."

"And next you're going to tell me that vampires don't either, I suppose?"

"Yes, I am." she sighed as her hands got full and opted to grab a basket to put everything she collected in, determinedly not meeting my eyes.

"There is no reason to pretend, you know. I can sense you. I've never met someone like me before." the comment was supposed to be to the point but it came out as more pleading than anything else.

She turned and finally looked at me, understanding lighting up her eyes. "I have only met one and she taught me everything I know." it was scarcely a whisper. "But.. how did you learn anything?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. I hadn't it was more of improvisation and "Uncle Google" as my math teacher liked to refer to it, who had helped me. I hadn't had that long to adjust after all. "I haven't really. I just go along with what feels right."

She frowned and read the list for what I was planning. "This sounds like you're planning to seriously harm someone." she looked concerned.

"He threatened my family. He also happens to be a vampire, so I didn't think the world would mind if one less killer was on the loose. Besides, it wouldn't kill him, only scare him away."

Her eyes widened at the mention of vampires. "I think we need to talk."

...

...

...

...

"So there's a whole world like us?" I asked, not even trying to mask the awe in my voice.

She nodded. "I think you need someone to teach you to control this stuff. There's things that you can't even imagine being capable of that you can do with practice."

"Ya but nobody here would ever have an interest in teaching me." I laughed sadly.

Indecision flickered in her eyes and then her jaw set. "I could teach you."

"Seriously?" the possibility was as much exciting as it was frightening. What if she decided she no longer wanted to teach me anymore, and left me stranded? What if she did want to teach me and I just wasn't as ready as I thought to handle all the supernatural aspects of myself? What if I was just making excuses because deep down I didn't feel like I deserved to be happy after what I did, whether or not it was an accident?

She smiled. "Yes. Here is my cell phone number. For now we will get you what you need and I will give you this to study." she pulled a book from her purse and handed it to me. It was old and leathery and looked like the stereotypical 'evil witch' bool. "This was my great grandmother's grimoire. I want you to read through it and we will go through it when we get together next. For now, focus on protecting yourself from that vampire." the way she said 'vampire' was with so much venom that I was sure she could kill one with just one word.

"I will hold on to every word." I said, only half exagerating.

"Be sure that you do, because one of them might save your life."

Neither of us knew how right she would prove to be.

**So that's chapter 2! SOrry if it's a little boring, I need to set up all the characters before the real action can start! Please REVIEW!**


End file.
